"Barry Goldwater said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue" at the 1964 Republican Convention .

That phrase worked against him, but many use similar logic in other areas, including religion.

"If Since I am right, then I need to do anything I can to be sure others hear the **truth**."....(I did the strikethru of 'if' after thinking about the sentence)
....this is not something I made up to make fun of 'True Believers'...it is essentially something I heard in various forms during my childhood in Kansas. There was a little place a few blocks from me which published those little 'tracts'....small, folded booklets with drawings that promised "eternal HellFire" if you didn't join _ _ _ _ church and/or accept Jesus.(space left for the church to stamp its own address)...at that time I was still a Methodist, but those booklets left a bad taste in my mouth. I was quite aware that there WERE other opinions, and I couldn't see why people had to be threatened into Heaven.

In Wichita, they ran the "B.C." comic strip (widely known for Johnny Hart's Christian orientation) in the Eagle newspaper, until he published one in which one character asks B.C. "do you believe in God?".."Yes" was the reply..."Why?"..."Because there might be one!", replied B.C.....BOOM! The shit hit the fan! Very soon, the strip was cancelled in the paper due to protests from the conservative Christians, and remained so for about 2 years, until they were convinced that it was all just a misunderstanding, and that Hart DID love Jesus.

Very little 'mutual respect' went on around there, but by that time, I was a Unitarian, where there was as much as I could hope for in any church-like institution. We had a Rabbi speak, we had long discussions...the minister was a former Baptist preacher who said he simply could not stand up and demand 'obedience' any longer....and by this time, I was also in college, beginning my formal education in 'how to think', in a Philosophy dept. which took a pretty dim view of 'orthodox' anything. We even had a Religion dept. which had a nice guy who was very 'ecumenical'.

So, here I am 40 years later, the product of both a reasonably 'liberal' education and my own experiences, trying to make sense of a world which seems not to wish to get along and 'respect' others......and I just.....keep.....typing.